I recently conducted an interview with Anne Gordon, a well known Canadian travel writer. Anne had just recently returned from Papua New Guinea and in particular, a trip up the Sepik River where she visited local tribes and learned something of the Malagan culture).

As a travel writer Anne speaks about the benefits of belonging to NATJA and other travel organizations, the benefits such as sponsored trips and the professional development opportunities that are open for travel writing.

As Anne said, “New Guinea is undoubtedly the most exotic and fascinating place she has ever been, there are over 900 tribes scattered throughout the island and an an ecosystem that spreads both above and beneath the surface”. Many of New Guinea’s tribes maintain customs and cultures that hold a special fascination for us in the west. Head hunting and cannibalism still exist in isolated pockets and have been practised quite commonly within the last 100 years.

Anne Gordon’s interview centres around the Sepik River and the carver’s of the Malagan culture, in particular the master carvers of New Ireland, she shows many incredible pictures of the tribes in that area and the tribal culture of New Guinea.

This past weekend Jeff and I visited a spot in the forest where we had found a tunnel this past summer. We had been trying to dig into the tunnel but the bugs were terrible. Now that the ground is heavily laden with snow there is no such problem – now its the cold. Anyway, after about 4 hours of digging and levering frozen boulders we managed to create a hole large enough to look well into our suspected cave and what we saw within was an elliptical shaped tunnel that was plugged by boulders. A small waterfall dropped from the roof of the tunnel and beyond, a chamber in marble.

We are yet to access the chamber, but with great difficulty Jeff photographed a small segment of the chamber. In his picture you can see a wall of pure white marble and you can hear the water falling within.

Near the entrance the roof is encrusted with frost thus indicating airflow from deeper in the earth. In fact it was the smear of frost on the wall outside the cave that first got us digging there in earnest. Based on its proximity to the edge of a steep slope and no apparent resurgence at its bottom I am left to conclude that the water flowing into the cave must be dropping down deep quite quickly. I suspect that it goes down a shaft such as you see in Twin Trickles Cave.

For cave exploring in Ontario this one is possibly one of the more exciting possibilities. This past weekend Jeff and I explored the tunnels for some short distance, but we were turned back by the conditions which were less than favourable – namely the cold, the prospect of a storm on the surface and my knee pads which kept sagging down and so my knees were torn to shreds.

nevertheless, for Adventure in Ontario I am still optimistic of eventually reaching the end. Thus far several pushes have not revealed the sump-point. On one trip we reached a spot called the aero-foil and past that a squeeze then bigger tunnels beyond.

I am thinking that the cave goes deep and the many sinkholes in the area must meet up with these tunnels somewhere beyond where we have crawled.

If you travel to Durban you will discover that it is heavily influenced by the Asian Indians who live there, in fact Durban has the largest Indian population outside of India – ironic that its at the tip of Africa.

If you are looking to make your own curry, there is the mix your own spices section at the Hyper-mart. A great meal of ‘Durban Curry’ at the Riverside (formerly the Athlone Hotel) and saris aplenty at the mall.

Most of Durban’s Indians are descendant from indentured labourers who arrived from 1860 onwards. Local labour was discovered to be economically self-sufficient so there was a need for hired help. The first ship arrived from Madras and despite the initial intention to have Indians work the sugar cane plantations they soon made a name for themselves as clerks, market gardeners and traders. In fact I can recall a fellow who had a property near our house in Kloof – ‘Paddyarchie’ who was our source of vegetables, we used to pop across and gather Kaki Weed to feed our rabbits from the edges of his land. I suspect mum used to trade some of our ever increasing rabbit population for vegetables (never admitted).

Ghandi is said to have spent time in Durban, helping local Indians oppose a bill that obstructed their right to vote.

It was quite early on a misty morning and we were heading toward the Hluhluwe – Umfolozi gate.

To my surprise a large herd of elephant came rumbling across the road, not in a line, but bursting from the bush along a wide front, a tsunami of leathery, grey behemoths.

As a matron stood threateningly, ears set forth from her head and trunk waving back and forth one tiny fellow stopped briefly to push the car in front. I nervously played with the gear shift and considered that a rapid u-turn might be necessary.

as I was driving through Hluhluwe there seemed to be a huge number of rhino that were roaming the grassy areas beside the road. I believe that these rhino were white rhino because they tend to have a hump behind their shoulders and they have a broad snout that is well suited to eating grass. The black rhino browses on shrubs and has more of a pointed snout.

Apparently when a herd of orphan elephants was introduced to the area they went on a killing spree and killed 36 rhino. the killing only stopped when a few older elephants were introduced to the herd. I suppose elephants require guidance from the older members of their herd and without it they run amok.

You might wonder why both rhino are grey in colour and yet one is called the White rhino and the other is called the Black Rhino, it is supposedly related to the thought that the wide lipped rhino was pronounced as the white rhino by some afrikaans speakers and the name stuck, so if the one species is white, the other is black.

The horn on the rhino in my video is absolutely massive, hope he weathers the predation of poachers.

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Following the release some time ago of my book "Rockwatching; Adventures above and below Ontario", I am pleased to announce the release of my new book "Tamarindo; Crooked Times in Costa Rica". It is a story of opportunity. Edgehill Press is the publisher. (www.edgehillpress.com)